‘We do not ask more of the wealthy to punish success. We do it to create more success stories.”

So spoke Mayor de Blasio in his inaugural, explaining his pitch to raise income taxes on people earning more than $500,000 to fund his plans for universal pre-K.

In effect, said the mayor, the progressive idea is this: In exchange for imposing on the city’s wealthy the price of a “small soy latte at your local Starbucks” each day, our youngest citizens will find their lives transformed by his new program for universal pre-K.

But after less than a week in office, the mayor has changed the equation. When asked Monday whether he would insist on raising taxes even if Albany came up with a different source for the cash to finance his pre-K plans, Mayor Bill was emphatic:

“You guys have asked this now, this is probably the 412th time, a variation on the theme. I wanna go over this again: We have a goal. We believe in this goal. We believe it’s the right thing to do. We are sticking to this goal. We’re not going to bargain against ourselves.”

We’ll take that as a “Yes, I’m going to raise taxes no matter what.”

As Mayor Bill went on to point out, if Albany came up with the cash he’s requesting for his pre-K program, he could find plenty of other things to spend it on. In other words, raising taxes is not simply a means. It’s an end in itself.

It’s an astounding position for a mayor of New York whose citizens are among the most highly taxed in the nation. These high taxes are sending some of our most successful citizens to places such as Florida, where there is no income tax. And de Blasio’s assurances that the tax would be temporary will likely not persuade New Yorkers still paying Gov. David Paterson’s “temporary” tax hike.

We’ll give him this: Mayor Bill is at least being upfront about the real value of his pre-K proposal.

Turns out it is less important for how it might raise kiddie learning than for how it helps him raise taxes on the wealthy.